This online course is ideal preparation for students thinking of studying biochemistry, medicine, and related subjects at university, exploring a range of academic theory and practical methods.

Course Summary

This course includes:

4 X Interactive Tutorials

Online quizzes and exams

Access to the course discussion forum

Course worksheets and case studies

ORA Certificate of completion

Overview

Have you ever wondered about the notion of identity? Or how and why our personalities develop? These are just some of the questions covered by the field of developmental psychology.

Through the exploration of concepts such as attachment, deprivation, privation, and gender, this course will introduce you to the fundamental theories of developmental psychology in an attempt to provide you with an overview of how humans change and develop over their lifetimes, and particularly at an early age. We will focus closely on a number of experiments that have taken place over the years and the different conclusions these have reached about human development, and will also focus on key case studies. These will provide you with an excellent base from which to undertake a university application, and useful discussion material for applications and interviews.

If you’re someone who is interested by the human brain, or about what makes us develop in the way we do, then this Developmental Psychology course is the perfect place to start your exploration into the human mind.

This tutorial will introduce you to the key concepts of developmental psychology of attachment. It will discuss the different forms of attachment that have been found to exist as well as cross-cultural differences. On a more practical level, this first tutorial will teach you how to conduct experiments to observe and measure attachment and the potential problems associated with these experiments.

This tutorial will build upon the previous tutorial by exploring how and why attachment occurs. It will draw upon the well-established nature v. nurture debate in advancing two main theories relating to the issue.

This tutorial will take a look at what happens in the absence of attachment. The two situations in which this can occur are called deprivation and privation respectively. The former focuses upon what happens when an attachment is broken, whilst the latter centres around what happens when an attachment was never formed in the first place.

This tutorial will discuss the many different explanations as to why we behave as males and females. These explanations often fall within either the nature bracket or the nurture bracket of the scientific debate that we encountered earlier on in the course.

Key Details

Course Pre-requisites

Advanced level of EnglishAn interest and enthusiasm for science, with particular reference to Psychology This course would suit students studying towards A-level Sociology/Psychology or equivalent, and in particular those interested in further university study of Psychology.

Course Level

For students applying to university to study Psychology, Medicine, Social Sciences or related subjects

Difficulty

Moderate

Prior Knowledge

No prior knowledge is required to take this course, just enthusiasm for the subject.

gain a closer understanding of key concepts such as attachment, deprivation, and behaviour

gain an insight into the scientific methods involved in psychological investigations

understand some of the key factors that affect the way in which humans develop in their early years

discuss a variety of important experiments and case studies that have contributed to our knowledge of human development

Course Author

Dr Carol Brown

Dr Carol Brown recently completed her doctorate at Oxford University. She has spent over 15 years teaching A-level Psychology, and has written a number of online courses and resources, 2 AS level textbooks and 3 undergraduate texts on developmental, social and cognitive Psychology.

Oxford Royale Academy is a part of Oxford Programs Limited, UK company number 6045196. The company contracts with institutions including Oxford University for the use of their facilities and also contracts with tutors from those institutions but does not operate under the aegis of Oxford University.

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